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Jan 6, 2025

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Trump meeting with Senate Republicans on mega-MAGA moonshot

The side of a black surburban SUV driving by with Trump in the back behind tinted glass windows.

Photo: Saul Martinez/Getty Images

President-elect Trump is set to visit Senate Republicans on Wednesday — after publicly siding with House Speaker Mike Johnson over how to pass major policy wins.

Why it matters: The new GOP trifecta needs to get on the same page before the much harder decisions come due.

  • Some Senate Republicans want to convince Trump that it's in his interest to divide his "one big, beautiful bill" into two separate packages.

  • Trump has backed one strategy and then the other — he just wants to get it all done. In a Hugh Hewitt interview on Monday, Trump indicated he would be fine with two bills too.

Between the lines: Wednesday's Senate GOP invite is a standing offer, we're told.

  • Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) will host Trump at the upcoming meeting as policy chair and has made it clear he's welcome whenever he wants to come, according to a source familiar.

  • Trump is expected to join the Senate GOP at its 6pm ET meeting. He'll be in town for the late President Jimmy Carter's funeral.

Zoom out: Some Republicans are agnostic on whether they should cram all their priorities into one massive package or move first on a border and deportation bill and then turn to tax legislation.

  • Many are privately concerned that attempting to fit everything into one bill will condemn it to failure.

Zoom in: Johnson, fresh off his squeaker of a speaker's victory, knows math isn't his friend when he's looking for 218 votes.

  • He is convinced he needs to wrap all of Trump's priorities — from ending taxes on tips to increasing border funding — into one massive bill and then convince his colleagues to all hold hands together, listen to Trump … and jump.

  • Trump will host a series of House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago later this week, including members of the Freedom Caucus, people pushing to restore the SALT deduction and various committee chairs.

What they're saying: Two of Trump's most frequent phone buddies — Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) — said nothing's set in stone.


  • "If we can get both of them done in one package, great, if we got to split them up, great," Mullin said. "All I'm saying is that I know that his Senate can deliver.

  • "I had multiple conversations with the president. He just wants it. He just wants the legislation to become permanent."

  • "Whatever they think they can do over there [in the House] is what we need to do," Tuberville told us. "I think it could still go either way."

The bottom line: Senate GOP leader John Thune tried to downplay the differing ideas, telling Punchbowl News the split over strategy is less important than the substance of what gets passed.

  • But Trump and his Hill leaders have been clear they intend to move fast. A divide over mechanics could slow things down.

  • The historically slim margins in the House could mean that Thune defers to Johnson based on what can pass the chamber.

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